http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_14227079Quote »Moral of the icy ruts: Get a winch, know how to use itBy Joe SoucherayUpdated: 01/19/2010 11:51:50 PM CSTReaders who thought I was exaggerating in two reports filed recently about the condition of our streets might consider the case of Catherine Peterson and her 2009 Pontiac Vibe, not an altogether miniature or lightweight vehicle.It was Sunday, Jan. 3, the day of my first dispatch in which I called for trucks with flamethrowers to make some attempt to reduce the icy ruts that had developed after the Christmas Day slush storm. About 1 p.m., Peterson set out for her job at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where she works with travelers' assistance. She set off cautiously, southbound on Edgcumbe Road.Tom Peterson, husband, real estate salesman and Vikings fan, had just settled down in front of the TV with fresh coffee and the Vikings hosting the Giants."Bliss,'' Tom Peterson said.Then the phone rang.Three blocks away at Bayard and Edgcumbe, Catherine Peterson was using the OnStar feature of her car to call home and tell her husband she was in a neighbor's driveway. She had to use the OnStar feature because her cell phone was in her left coat pocket and her Vibe was on its left side, capsized, driver's-side down.Catherine was not injured. She hadn't been going fast."I've never had an accident or even a ticket,'' she said.She said it happened in slow motion, the very choreography I imagined might happen, when either the front or back wheels get captured on the wrong side of the ruts and the car ends up sliding along the ice railin the middle of the street. Although Catherine isn't exactly certain, she said it felt like the back wheels lost contact with the surface of the Earth, and the next thing she knew, the car was on its side, tucked neatly, nose first, in the driveway of Jim and Kitty Dawson.Patiently, Catherine listened to the Vikings game on the radio while her husband walked to the scene. Neighbors gathered. Somebody said, with certainty, that it was the third accident at Bayard and Edgcumbe in 48 hours. A stepladder was fetched."It was like I had to be pulled out of a can,'' Catherine said.Tom peeled back the front passenger door and reached in, releasing his wife's seat belt. She managed to step on the center console and emerged, like a submariner through a hatch. Then, down the stepladder and into one of her family's other cars and off she went to work."The air bags didn't even go off,'' she said.Oh, the police came, a wrecker was called, and the city was called, too, to remind them to put down something at Bayard and Edgcumbe because it was apparently ground zero for car flipping.You might think the moral of the story is to be careful, except that Catherine was being careful and not exceeding even 20 mph. And you might think the moral of the story is to keep your cell phone where you can reach it in the event of going over. Or you might even think that the moral of the story is to drive only old clunkers in the dead of winter, because when an old clunker goes over it's not a big deal at the body shop.But the real moral of the story is that you need to own a winch. That's the moral of the story. After waiting three hours for a tow truck and finally giving up, Tom Peterson went to one of the big-box stores and bought a winch.He attached the winch to a tree and a strap to the Vibe and had all four wheels back on the ground inside of five minutes. He drove the car back home. That's what it's come to, so long as bad conditions hit over Christmas and the city is perhaps not putting a full complement of storm soldiers out there with salt, grit and blades.Better have a winch handy and a husband who knows how to use one.
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